Dear Brother/Sister
Emergency medical response and wider work - NJC approved trials
As you will know the Union in conjunction with the Employers, agreed through the National Joint Council (NJC) to investigate the possibility of widening the role of the Fire and Rescue Service.
To this end a number of workstreams were created to look at potential areas of work for introduction at National level on a “without commitment” basis.
One of these workstreams is Emergency Medical Response (EMR) e.g. Co-responding, Falls, On-site trauma care, provision of community training. Fire and Rescue Authorities were invited to run trials of this type of work and 36 Fire and Rescue Authorities are now running these which are planned to end by February 2017. Many of you will currently be involved with this work on an ongoing basis.
An independent report of the trials has been commissioned by the NJC which we expect to be completed before the end of 2016.
Your feed-back on the impact of this work and its effect on the service are important to us in going forward, and we ask that you ensure that any issues arising as a result of the trials which give rise to concerns, are reported to your brigade officials.
We are also keen to hear of any positive experiences you have in carrying out the kind of work included in these trials. The Union will report on the trials at a later date.
Please attend your branch meetings and ensure that relevant information is passed to your brigade officials.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally
Matt Wrack
General Secretary
MW/JM/jr
